Hingham may form compressor station task force

Monday

Jul 24, 2017 at 5:31 PMJul 24, 2017 at 5:42 PM

Selectmen will discuss forming the volunteer panel during its July 25 meeting. Selectmen have already passed a resolution opposing the proposed North Weymouth natural-gas compressor station. Parts of Hingham are two miles from the proposed compressor site.

Lane Lambert The Patriot Ledger @llambert_ledger

HINGHAM – Hingham could become the next coastal community to actively join the opposition to a controversial, proposed North Weymouth natural-gas compressor station.

Selectmen may vote July 25 to create a volunteer task force to monitor developments with the Spectra Energy project, so the town can “engage as appropriate,” Selectmen Chairman Mary Power said.

Selectmen took a first step in April, passing a resolution against the project. They said then that the 7,700-horsepower compressor could pose public-safety and health risks to parts of Hingham as well as to North Weymouth, East Braintree and Quincy.

“It’s going to take a long time to unfold,” Power said of the Spectra proposal. “Given the complexity of the issue, it would make sense to create task force to monitor the situation.”

She said the task force could also help Hingham coordinate actions with other communities – but she stopped short of saying that selectmen will vote for it during the 7 p.m. Tuesday meeting at town hall.

“We look forward to a good discussion,” she said.

Spectra wants to build the compressor station on the Fore River shore, just over the Weymouth side of the Route 3A bridge. The compressor would be part of an expansion of Spectra’s gas lines from New Jersey to Canada.

Parts of Hingham are two miles to the east, around Route 3A. That area includes The Launch retail shopping development, the Hewitt’s Cove condominiums, and the Beal Street neighborhood on the opposite side of the highway.

“No compressor station” lawn signs have been posted here and there around town, and Power said selectmen are getting calls as well.

Opposition to the Spectra project has spread since the company unveiled its plan in 2015. Since 2016 the Weymouth group Fore River Residents Against The Compressor Station has been joined by Weymouth and Braintree civic associations, the mayors of Weymouth, Braintree and Quincy, Congressman Stephen Lynch and U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey.

The federal energy commission has given the compressor conditional approval. But on July 17, Gov. Charlie Baker ordered the state’s environmental protection and public health departments to make a joint assessment of how the station would affect air quality and community health, compared to those conditions today.